Sue Tonks' FOC CIMA Networking Workshop - 27th February at Wychwood Park Hotel, Crewe

Effective networking: develop your skills, enhance confidence and create wider business opportunities – joint event with CIPD

Networking is a key link to enable joint action and collaboration with other businesses and professionals, as well as improving internal communication within your own organisation.  However, networking brings with it a host of fears and concerns and bad practice.

This workshop on networking is dynamic, funny and highly participative. It addresses some of the difficulties of networking, gives you skills to join groups and people with ease, develop effective small talk, ask the right business questions, escape from the rude or boring person, spot the opportunity and deal with it in the right way and finally follow up effectively and confidently.

Learn about the preparation and planning, how to answer the question ‘What do you do?’ and how to represent yourself and your organisation at any function, at anytime with anybody.

Networking for the minority is fun, for the rest of us it can be pretty daunting and scary. This talk will help you understand why and how you can use it to your advantage to develop your contacts.

Date:  27 February 2014

Time: 6.30pm for 7.00pm

Location:  DeVere Wychwood Park Hotel, Crewe CW2 5GP 

Price: No charge - Buffet served on arrival - all guests welcome

Booking details: email Julie.witts@cimaglobal.com to book your free place

Speaker Details

Sue Tonks is an international speaker and extremely experienced trainer with an unmistakable style.

She has had 20-years’ experience in leadership and management development with blue chip companies such as Compass Group, Adidas, Manchester United, Baker Tilly, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank and Co- Operative Pharmacy group.

Sue has run her own business leadership and management training company for ten years following her experience in many industry sectors such as logistics, travel and tourism, catering and facilities management, sales, HR and local government.

Her key note talks on business and networking bring realism, comedy and a practicality which will stay with you forever.

Testimonials: -

LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL MBA PROGRAMMES 2011

“Sue's session was wonderful, it has given me the confidence to appear at high level business events with confidence.”

H E BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME - PRAXIS - LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY 2011

“I need to get more from this woman! Amazing!”

“The session I was dreading the most, and the one I needed most. In the end, it was brilliant. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt loads!!”

“Sue is fantastic and it would have been good to have a longer session for her. Everyone struggles with networking.”

“Amazing – excellent tips/content. Fantastic speaker – so engaging and so helpful.”

DURHAM UNIVERSITY MBA BUSINESS SCHOOL 2010

“It's a fantastic workshop. I learned a lot about how to network effectively and confidently. When I next take this kind of event, I will deal with it easily and freely”

“Definitely recommend others, especially who are not from the UK.”

FORBES SOLICITORS

“An excellent training session, well delivered covering an interesting array of information with some great networking tips.”

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS: -

“This is just to say that Sue Tonks’ training event yesterday on networking was just brilliant. Full of practical advice on every bit of the networking process, as well as enormous fun!”

“I am no longer apprehensive about going into a room of people to network, and it’s entirely due to yesterday’s training. Elizabeth”

“I'm very grateful to Sue Tonks for sharing her vast experience on this subject. Before attending, I imagined it would be similar to the education slots at my local BNI, but this seminar was altogether far more detailed and more enjoyable than anything I'd encountered before. What really impressed me was how Sue able to deliver so much information with such incredible humour and professionalism - Peter Faulkner”

“What can I say? Yesterday was fabulous. I can honestly say that this was one of the most enjoyable training courses I have ever had the privilege to attend. Sue is an inspiration. Her delivery style is so entertaining whilst still being very informative. Our business is about building relationships, understanding people and encouraging people to know, like and trust us. Sue's workshop demonstrates all of these requirements in spades - Terri Cope”

“A pointless, predatory tax that will do nobody any good” says Merryn Somerset Webb of Money Week

What do you think the fifth most read piece on the personal finance part of the FT website is? The obvious answer is to think that it will relate to some kind of recent news – perhaps platform charging or how to protect your portfolio from tapering turmoil.

It isn’t. It is an article written by Lucy Warwick-Ching back in 2012 on the ten ways in which HMRC can tell if you are cheating on your taxes. And it isn’t just on the most-read list now, it’s been on the list since it was written.

What this tells me is that the people who read the FT think they pay too much tax, and that they are either trying to avoid or evade as much as they can, or they are wondering if they might give it a go. If I was in charge of the country, that in itself would be enough to make me think that I wouldn’t want to raise tax rates at all. Ever.

Better, I would think, to take in as much as I can at lower rates than battle rising evasion/avoidance at higher rates. But I’m not Ed Balls or Ed Miliband, and I am not engaged in an ideological battle against anyone I perceive as rich or over-aspirational.

The idea of returning the top rate to a level that even Labour called ‘temporary’ when it was first introduced smacks, as Lord Myners put it, of “predatory taxation”, and I can’t really see the point of that.

One important thing to note on this argument – and one that appears to be wilfully ignored by everyone – is that no one’s income is static. It might be that at any one moment only 1% of the population are earing £150,000 plus. But over a career, that number is much, much higher. I can’t find figures on this in the UK, but for a hint we can turn to the US.

Some 2% of people are earning $250,000 at any one time. But ten times that number – 20% – earn the equivalent of $250,000 at some point in their career. The point is that the 1% is not actually 1% at all. This kind of penalty affects a huge range of people at the top of their game and on the way to the top of their game.

And let’s not forget that direct tax rates in the UK are already pretty high. There is no such thing as a 45% marginal rate. Everyone pays another 2% in NI at that level, so the minimum you can call our top rate is 47%. You can then argue that employers, National Insurance (a cost which employees effectively end up paying by being forced to accept lower wages) is actually an income tax too. Look at it like that, and the top rate of tax is already far more than 50% already. Not too low, but too high.

It is also worth noting that back in 1979 the top 1% of income earners paid 13% of all our income tax – at a time when the top rate was 83%. Today the top 1% of income earners (not wealth holders but income earners – the difference is important) already pay not far off 30% of all UK income tax despite earning less than 14% of all income.

The arguments about whether higher taxes bring higher revenues will run and run, but my final statistic on this comes from the Sunday Times. In 2012-13, when the 50p rate was in place, HMRC raised £41.6bn from it. This year, with 45p as the top rate, it is to raise £49.3bn.

That should make those who support a rise wonder if demanding it is a good idea – one that will encourage wealth creation, innovation and entrepreneurial energy – or just a sure fire way of raising less tax revenue overall.

 

By Merryn Somerset Webb of Money Week

Oliver Rowe launches the Fusion Production Group

Lichfield businessman and Youth Rep Director, Oliver Rowe, has recently launched the Fusion Production Group.

Their new website says, “Fusion Production Group are a highly experienced event production agency offering a range of fully integrated services which enable us to produce live event experiences that connect people with your brand and inspire your audience.”

Oliver told me, “We cater for conferences, exhibitions, gala dinners, award ceremonies and obviously any live events”. And if Oliver is involved, you can be sure that it will be a high quality production.

You can contact the Fusion Production Group at: -

info@fusion-productions.com

 

http://www.fusion-productions.com/index.html

 

‘The Key to Career Success’ – Free CIMA Event in Stafford on 21st January 2014

Do you ever wonder if your career is progressing in the best direction and at the right pace?

Imagine realising in the future that, although you survived, you never really thrived.

Too many people limit their career success unnecessarily because of: -

Not knowing what to do next and how to make things happen

Staying stuck because of past failure in trying to find or secure a desired role

Not clearly recognising their own capabilities and potential.

This session offers practical steps you can take to build a career that makes the most of your passion and potential.

Topics covered will include: -

The importance of purpose and personal brand

How to write a compelling CV

Succeeding in job interviews

Positioning yourself for pay rises and promotion

Building a great professional network

Tapping into the hidden job market.

Drawing upon his personal journey, along with 20 years’ experience encompassing recruitment, outplacement, career guidance, HR consulting and leadership mentoring and coaching, Peter Milligan brings his own perspective on how you can go further than you might have previously thought possible. This event will include group interaction and a question and answer session.

Date: 21 January 2014 

Location:  Mercure Hatherton House Hotel, Stafford ST19 5QP

Price: Free

Book: email Julie.witts@cimaglobal.com

Time: 6.30 for 7.00pm

Buffet served on arrival

 

Speaker Details

Peter Milligan, Director of New Generation Leaders, brings expertise, energy and inspiration to people in the three areas of leadership, communication and career development.

A corporate psychologist with a background in selecting and developing business leaders and teams since 1992, Peter was among the first in Australia to develop executive coaching as a service for organisational leaders. Over the past two decades, his support and challenge has enabled hundreds of people in Australia and the UK to produce changes and results that would not have otherwise happened so quickly. Peter’s coaching is characterised by passion, empathy, humour, and plain speaking.

Lord Digby Jones in top form at the Birmingham Business Breakfast Club

Paul Hooper-Keeley & Lord Digby Jones at the BBBC 17th October

It is always a packed Botanical Gardens when Lord Digby Jones, a founder member of the Birmingham Business Breakfast Club, returns to his roots and his “constituency”, and this week was no exception.

One of the most passionate public speakers supporting British business, and the up-skilling of our school children and our workforce, Digby always has a special place in his heart for the West Midlands and, in particular, Birmingham - which he describes as “the greatest City in the world”.

And passion was to the fore at this BBBC event where Lord Jones (quite rightly) laid in to Ed Miliband’s pledge that a Labour government would freeze energy prices for at least 2 years. As Digby said, this is clearly an attempt at populist vote winning – Tesco have a higher net profit percentage than the energy firms but Ed Miliband is not suggesting a freeze on food prices (obviously not a vote winner). He also made the point that a potential Labour government that makes soundings about interfering with business will clearly scare off foreign investment in to the UK to the possible benefit of France, Germany, Spain etc.

Digby said aspiration is a good thing and it is wrong for Ed Miliband to demonise big business as a bad thing to the general public. He reinforced the point that we would be nowhere without business – business provides the jobs that provides the taxes for the government and the public sector to exist (to create more jobs and taxes (and benefit payments!!!)). He said politicians always focus on the spending of money (i.e. spending cuts, spending restraints etc.) when they should really be looking at the earning of the money.

For those of you, like me, who have seen Digby speak on several occasions and have read his excellent book, ‘Fixing Britain’, I can tell you that the long un-scripted speech that he made at the BBBC is an ‘all new’ set of anecdotes, opinions and insights that he has experienced over the last few months (his poor recent customer experiences with BT and the Passport Office were in the funny but sadly true category).

Lord Jones is currently working on a new series of programmes with the BBC on the British Manufacturing Industry in which he will be helping companies in the Sir John Harvey Jones ‘Trouble-shooter’ style (with the caveat that each show starts with a positive narrative of British Industry before the main body of the programme). He told us that the series is due to be aired in March 2014.

And, as is often the case with Digby, all proceeds from the morning’s events were donated to charity (with the Ladies Breast Cancer Charity being the main worthy recipient).

Michael Portillo’s keynote address was one of the highlights of The 2013 Finance Director’s Forum from 9th – 12th October

Paul Hooper-Keeley & Michael Portillo

Well done to Richmond Events for making this year’s FD’s Forum arguably the best yet.

Boarding the Aurora at 2pm on Wednesday 9^th, we were efficiently checked in to our cabins where a full itinerary for the event was waiting. As a speaker at one of the events, my first task was to visit the events office to confirm the technical elements before then joining my colleague FDs for afternoon tea, welcome on board words from Mark Rayner and our muster drill (maritime law).

We were joined by the Marketing, IT and Communication Director delegates in the theatre for the first keynote speech of the event – the very entertaining Michael Portillo. Due to Chatham House Rules I won’t comment too much as to the content of his speech, entitled ‘Britain and Europe – coalition and rupture’ – suffice to say that it was very well received by the audience. He did make the point that he sees himself as an entertainer these days and that he has no desire to return to the political fold; enjoying the freedom he now has to voice his opinion as he sees fit.

David Smith & Paul Hooper-Keeley

My session, the ‘Words From The Wise’ panel was first up after breakfast on Thursday. Facilitated by David Smith, Economics Editor of The Sunday Times, my colleagues on the panel were Mark Freebairn (Partner at head-hunter Odgers Berndtson), Dave Mottram (FD at Siemens plc) and Richard Turner (CFO of Abu Dhabi Ship Building). It proved to be an interesting session – like Question Time for FDs.

The schedule I had then featured Mark Freebairn’s ‘Rising to the top – the skills to take you there’ presentation followed by David Smith’s ‘Global Economic Outlook’. All delegates came together for the next keynote session, ‘Optimising human performance: learn how to operate by understanding your mind’. This lively and fast-paced keynote was given by Dr Steve Peters who worked with the Team GB Cycling team leading up to London 2012 (and currently works with Ronnie O’Sullivan) and introduced us all to our ‘Inner Chimp’.

Post lunch we were treated to the corporate benefits of The Cheese & Wine Company by founder Steve Parker in a blind tasting session called England versus France. Steve is very knowledgeable on his subject and this was a really good session. We then had a session entitled ‘Develop Mental Toughness – the winning mind-set of champions’ before going off to undertake several supplier meetings on a one-to-one basis.

Paul Hooper-Keeley & Phil Tufnell

Friday’s sessions for me included ‘Being remarkable starts with me – how to inspire those around you’, ‘Pricing Policy Performance’ and Andrew Sawers discussion group on ‘The requirements and attributes of a modern FD’. In the middle of several supplier meetings was the days’ keynote address from Cranfield University’s Professor Stephen Carver, ‘How not to make a catastrophe out of a crisis’, which was very well presented and entertaining. The final night’s dinner was followed by ‘An audience with Phil Tufnell’, which was hosted by sports presenter Alison Mitchell and was a very lively end to the evening indeed.

Overall this was a very intensive 3-day forum, running from approx. 7.30am to 11.00pm with very little free-time, which is exactly how it should be to maximise the return on those precious few days out of the office. Well done Richmond Events and it will be interesting to see how they plan to top this in 2014.

Paul Hooper-Keeley Q&As in the current issue of Financial Director magazine

Financial Director Magazine – Q&A

Paul Hooper-Keeley

FCMA CGMA MBA C.Dir FIoD FInstLM FCMI CMgr FMAAT
Finance Director
Mills CNC Limited

01.   Rise early or work late? A bit of both. I am normally at my desk for 7.30am as I feel my thought processes are at their sharpest in the morning for problem solving etc. and tend to schedule the majority of my meetings for afternoons.

02.   Training preferences: on the job or formal? For specific job related skill sets then on the job training is better as it can be bespoked to suit. However, I am also a stickler for formal training at the professional level (I am currently Chairman of CIMA in the North West Midlands (and sit on the West Midlands Regional Board) and am the Institute of Directors’ West Midlands Ambassador for their Chartered Director qualification (being the IoD’s 25^th Chartered Director myself) so push professional qualifications quite hard) – thus, I have no time for recruitment agencies telling me of great accountants ‘qualified by experience’!

03.   What’s your management style? To build the best team possible and empower them with the responsibility and authority to undertake their work flows, ensuring that they have time to think and reflect on what they’re doing (which I believe is a key principle but often missing from the manic schedules of many companies).

04.   Does delegation come easy? Yes – I want to keep my team undertaking the most interesting work possible whilst I progress chase to ensure deadlines and targets are met.

05.   Who do you rely on most? My Financial Controller – a successful FD needs the best FC possible to take on the heavy lifting on a day-to-day basis. This allows me to contribute more to the Board at a strategic level and get involved in all areas of the business.

06.   Boardroom or restaurant? The formality and organisational aspect of my role leans heavily towards the Boardroom scenario, although my commercial and networking side sees the restaurant as an excellent and less formal environment for building lasting business relationships.

07.   What technology would you never be without? My smartphone to ensure I can pick up emails and stay in the loop wherever I am in the world, LinkedIn to keep in touch with my network, and Excel because, at the end of the day, I am an accountant and it’s a great tool.

08.   Are you an FD for life? I am a Commercial FD who gets involved in all aspects of the business in order to provide solutions and generate growth (as opposed to the old fashioned ‘bean-counter’ FD whose main role was to say “No”). Thus, my natural inclination is to transcend to MD of a business at an appropriate point in the future if the opportunity arises.

09.   What keeps you awake at night? Nothing significant at Mills CNC Limited as I feel we have an excellent team throughout the business who all work towards the company’s goals. Although in the past, when I have been involved in M&A and turnaround work, I’ve often woken up thinking about cash (or the lack of it).

10.   Critical advice to aspiring FDs? Focus on cash – ensure your EBITDA to Operating Cash conversion ratio is running north of 85%. At the end of the day, all business successes and failures come down to cash so keep it on your radar at all times. Also commercialism – get involved across the business with a ‘can do’ attitude towards supporting controlled growth and generating cash.